Paul

Chicago/Illinois Political Chart for Obama Supporters

2008-02-04T18:23:46Z

Richard Michael Daley (born April 24, 1942) Mayor of Chicago (Since 1989)	Richard Joseph Daley (Father of Richard Michael Daley) (May 15, 1902 – December 20, 1976) Mayor of Chicago (1955 - 1976) Supporter of John F. Kennedy in 1960.
	William Michael Daley (Brother of Richard Michael Daley) (born August 8, 1948 in Chicago, Illinois) U.S. Secretary of Commerce (1997 – 2000) Appointed by President Bill Clinton.
Rod R. Blagojevich (born December 10, 1956) Governor of Illinois	Richard F. "Dick" Mell (Father-in-law of Rod R. Blagojevich) (born May 5, 1938) Alderman, Chicago City Council
	Deborah L. Mell (Daughter of Richard F. "Dick" Mell) Candidate Illinois House of Representatives (40th district seat; unopposed.)
Jesse Louis Jackson, Jr. (born March 11, 1965) U.S. Congressman (United States House of Representatives Illinois's 2nd congressional district.)	Sandi Jackson (Wife of Jesse Louis Jackson, Jr.) (born on September 14, 1963) Alderman, Chicago City Council "She succeeds Darcel A. Beavers who had been appointed by Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley after the 2006 November elections to succeed her father William Beavers, Jackson's rival, as alderman of the 7th Ward."
	Jesse Louis Jackson (Father of Jesse Louis Jackson, Jr.) (born October 8, 1941)
Lisa Madigan (born July 30, 1966 in Chicago) Attorney General (State of Illinois)	Michael J. Madigan (Father of Lisa Madigan) (born April 19, 1942) Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives & Chairman of the Democratic Party of Illinois.
Todd Stroger (born January 14, 1963) Alderman Cook County Board President "In 2001 Stroger was appointed by Mayor Richard M. Daley to replace the late Ald. Dixon. On July 18, 2006, the Cook County Democratic Central Committee (a collection of 80 county Democratic party leaders also known as 'ward committeemen' or 'township committeemen') overwhelmingly chose Todd Stroger to replace his father as the Democratic candidate for Cook County Board."	John H. Stroger (Father of Todd Stroger) (May 19, 1929 – January 18, 2008) Cook County Board President
Barack Hussein Obama (born August 4, 1961) U.S. Senator Harvard Law School Illinois State Senate (from 1997) University of Chicago	Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama (Wife of Barack Hussein Obama) (born January 17, 1964) Vice President for Community and External Affairs at the University of Chicago Hospitals Harvard Law School "She served on the board of TreeHouse Foods, Inc., a major Wal-Mart supplier...Obama served as the Associate Dean of Student Services at the University of Chicago since 1996 where she developed the University's Community Service Center. She then worked for the University of Chicago Hospitals beginning in 2002, first as executive director for community affairs..."
	Frasier Robinson (Father-in-law of Barack Hussein Obama) (who died in 1990), City of Chicago pump operator & Democratic precinct captain.
Joseph P. Kennedy "Purchase [of] the largest office building in the country, Chicago's Merchandise Mart, which gave his family an important base in that city and an alliance with the Irish-American political leadership there."	Sam Giancana "It is also widely reputed that, at roughly the same time, Joseph P. Kennedy recruited Giancana to help mobilize labor union voter and financial support behind his son Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy in the latter's bid to become the Democratic Party's nominee for the 1960 Presidential election..."
John D. Rockefeller "In 1890 John D. Rockefeller gave $80 million to the University of Chicago under William Rainey Harper, turning a small Baptist college into a world-class institution by 1900."	University of Chicago The development of agent orange; world's first self-sustained nuclear reaction.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_M._Daley
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_J._Daley
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_M._Daley
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_Blagojevich
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Mell
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deb_Mell
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Jackson_Jr
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandi_Jackson
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Jackson
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_Madigan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Madigan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Todd_Stroger
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Stroger
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_obama
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelle_Obama
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_P._Kennedy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Chicago
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Giancana
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_D._Rockefeller

ace_combs @ 2008-01-28T21:32:00

2008-01-29T05:26:52Z

Mitt Romney - So, Mitt Romney's father, George, was a member of the Nixon Administration, having served as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development from 1969 - 1973. (1) Too, George Romney was the chairman of AMC Motors, a lobyist for ALCOA and a Governor of the State of Michigan. (2)

I suppose that this is interesting [to me] vis-a-vis Mitt Romney's statement that he is an "outsider" who will "bring change" to Washington. And it reinforces the thought that Mitt is probably connected to "Wolfram and Hart," inasmuch as George Bush Sr., Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, et al, also joined the "Firm" during Nixon's tenure in office.

The funny thing about Nixon was that he "made his bones" suggesting that there was an ideological threat to the "American Way of Life." You know: a monolithic international conspiracy that was opposed to freedom. And Nixon was a sneak, having employed agencies under his direction for the purpose of making illegal searches and seizures. Too, Nixon tampered with the electoral process.

Well, thank goodness all of that is behind us. I'm counting on the "Senior Partners" to deliver Florida. Please don't make me lose faith in power of the Great Tradition.

Barack Obama - Speaking of bringing change: When was the last time that someone rose rapidly within a hierarchy -- by opposing that hierarchy?

In my own experience -- in government, in the Academy, etc. -- when one calls into question the values that one is expected to maintain, one's progress is thwarted. Barack Obama, at age 46, is running for the Presidency, after having been elected to the Illinois State Legislature, and the United States Senate. (3)

It seems not to be the case that Barack Obama was committed to actualizing "real change" while he occupied any office to which he was previously elected -- but rather he "leap-frogged" from office-to-office for the sake of realizing his ambitions.

Barack Obama and his wife Michelle Robinson are said to be deeply connected to the University of Chicago [where they both hold appointments], Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich (5), the Chicago Democratic Party via Michelle Robinson's late father [a Democratic precinct captain], Rod Blagojevich's father-in-law Chicago Alderman Dick Mell (6) and United States Representative Jesse Jackson, Jr. as well as his wife: Chicago Alderman Sandi Jackson. (7)

Outsider?

Both Barack Obama and Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich are said to have long-standing relationships with recently-arrested "slum landlord" Tony Rezko (8), the character mentioned by Hillary Clinton in a recent debate. Per local news, Tony Rezko funded Barack Obama's first successful run for public office; Rezko sold property to the Obamas.

(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixon_administration#Administration_and_Cabinet

(2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._Romney

(3) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama

(4) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelle_Obama

(5) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_Blagojevich

(6) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Mell

(7) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Jackson,_Jr.

(8) http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gWEn19RovunDF8NAXPH8FcXCW9RwD8UF02402

Personal Politics

2008-01-08T07:11:22Z

(I) You create the appearance of a struggle for the purpose of building the myth of your own overcoming.

(II) You create the appearance of a crisis for the sake of introducing a solution that -- absent the crisis -- would be unacceptable.

(III) Having employed force and fraud to obtain some honor you feign disinterest in laurels -- suggesting that anyone, really, might do even better with just a little, honest, hard work.

(IV) You refuse to acknowledge any rival's disadvantage -- always ready with the story of some third party in a yet more difficult circumstance; you admit no comparison with yourself.

Circa 2008, on-line, the two things worse than being stupid are (a) being old; and (b) being boring. That's why you hate (a) history; and (b) politics. And that's why you're stupid.

Recalling the Republican Presidential Primary of the year 2000, the last year that the nomination was contested, George Bush struggled against John McCain till South Carolina:

"McCain won a 48%-30% victory over Bush in the New Hampshire primary and seized the attention of the media. In the South Carolina primary, however, Bush soundly defeated McCain. Some credited Bush's win to the fact that it was the first major primary in which only registered Republicans could vote, which negated McCain's strong advantage among independents. Some McCain supporters blamed it on a campaign of dirty tricks such as push polling, including the false suggestion that McCain fathered an African-American child out of wedlock, perpetrated against McCain by his political enemies. Whatever the real reason, McCain's loss in South Carolina stopped his momentum cold. Although McCain won a few additional primaries, Bush took the majority and handily won the nomination at the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia." (1)

Bush's "negative" campaign in South Carolina is said to have been executed by one Warren Tompkins. Mitt Romney has hired the same party -- Warren Tompkins -- for his South Carolina campaign. (2)

If there is no change in Romney's favor after South Carolina, it would still be possible to affect the mood of the electorate with a "Gulf of Tonkin" action in the Strait of Hormuz (3) or some similar domestic event.

Interesting in ABC's NH debate was Mitt Romney's defense of the pharmaceutical industry. (4)

See too "Making Mitt Romney: How to fabricate a conservative" in Harper's. (5)

If Mike Huckabee manages to capture the nomination I'll be forced to restore my faith in the American political process. But I don't see it happening. I've got to believe that Wolfram & Hart (6) will succeed, somehow, in introducing their creature: their pro-business, pro-globalism, pro-torture (7), man. Mike Huckabee -- like him, or not -- believes in his God and in his religion. And people who have a conscience simply will not do. No, the Senior Partners need an essentially amoral man who's committed to the principle of radical inequality, as manifest in a rigid social hierarchy, chiefly indicated by a grossly unequal distribution of wealth and power.

Thanks for going to the Buffyverse (8) with me.

(1)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._presidential_election,_2000
(2)http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=warren+tompkins+2008&btnG=Search
(3)http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7175325.stm
(4)http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=mitt+romney+defends+drug+companies&btnG=Search
(5)http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/11/0081773
(6)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senior_Partners
(7)http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=mitt+romney+guantanamo&btnG=Search
(8)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffyverse

p.s. Romney + Giuliani? Obama + Edwards? Clinton + Richardson?
p.p.s. How does Obama do better than JFK & RFK? I read too many such references on-line, and hear too many such references on the radio. Americans can be ugly. The country is becoming meaner -- and more fearful.

Vote -- Election 2008

2008-01-07T02:40:12Z

Pinocchio, originally uploaded by Liliane Ferrari.

American Presidential Election -- Primaries

2008-01-03T21:30:49Z

03 Jan: Iowa
08 Jan: New Hampshire
15 Jan: Michigan
19 Jan: Nevada, South Carolina (R)
26 Jan: South Carolina (D)
29 Jan: Florida
01 Feb: Maine
05 Feb: California, New York, Illinois, New Jersey, etc

Republican Nomination:

Within the Party, there is said to be a division between fiscal conservatives and social conservatives. (1) Fiscal conservatives, a/k/a Rockefeller Republicans, a/k/a the oligarchic faction, seem to have thrown their support to Mitt Romney. Watch Mitt Romney.

Noteworthy are George H.W. Bush's [two?] recent invitations to Mitt Romney for the purpose of speaking at the Bush Family's facilities at Texas A&M University. (2)

Too, Mitt Romney seems to have re-invented himself for purpose of winning the hearts -- or at least assuaging the fears -- of the social conservatives participating in the Republican Primaries/Caucuses. Noteworthy are what are said to be substantial changes in Mitt Romney's positions on: immigration; abortion; gay rights; environmental regulation; etc. (3)

Also see "Romney More G.H.W.B. Than J.F.K." at The New York Observer's website. (4)

The leading socially conservative candidate -- Mike Huckabee -- is said to have received substantial critiques via "Conservative" media outlets such as The Rush Limbaugh Show. (5)

Further: Investigate "negative campaigning" by Mitt Romney in Iowa.

Democratic Nomination:

On the opposite side of the aisle, it is my opinion that Hillary Clinton is the candidate who most closely resembles Mitt Romney. Barack Obama is, then, Mike Huckabee's mirror image. (6)

"Real change," as represented within the Democratic Party by Dennis Kucinich [within the Republican Party by Ron Paul,] is being, and has been, marginalized.

It's very hard to lose a race when you own all the horses; and you can't buy the horses without the money. Following Bush v. Gore, and Bush v. Kerry, I lost any remaining faith in the American electoral system. Watching interest in the war diminish [from little to none] I lost any remaining faith in the American people.

(1) See "Rockefeller Republicans" at Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockefeller_Republican
(2) See "Governor Mitt Romney's Remarks at the George Bush Presidential Library Center," including substantial praise of the Bush Family, at Mitt Romney's website:
http://www.mittromney.com/News/Speeches/Remarks_George_Bush_Library_Center
(3) See a search for "romney flip flop" at Google:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=romney+flip+flop&btnG=Google+Search
(4) New York Observer article:
http://www.observer.com/2007/romney-more-ghwb-jfk
(5) See a search for "limbaugh criticize huckabee" at Google:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=limbaugh+criticize+huckabee&btnG=Search
(6) See previous entry reference votes on war funding.

90-3 No Candidate Votes Against War Funding

2007-12-15T19:57:44Z

source --
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7145488.stm

US Senate Passes Iraq Funds Bill
"The US Senate has authorized more spending for the Iraq war, without tying the bill to a timetable for troop withdrawal - a key Democratic demand. In a 90-3 vote, it approved a further $189bn (£94bn) for the campaigns in Iraq and also in Afghanistan. Democrats, who have a 51-49 majority in the Senate, accepted the measure after failing to impose the timetable demand. The bill had passed in the House of Representatives. President Bush is now expected to sign it into law. Republicans expressed their satisfaction with the Senate vote. 'I was pleased to see...no policy changes to the Petraeus plan,' said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell."

source --
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&session=1&vote=00433

Measure Number: H.R. 1585 (National Defense Authorization Fiscal Year 2008)
Measure Title: To authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2008 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy, to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for other purposes.

Vote Counts:
YEAs -- 90
NAYs -- 3
Not Voting -- 7

Biden (D-DE), Not Voting
Boxer (D-CA), Not Voting
Clinton (D-NY), Not Voting
Dodd (D-CT), Not Voting
Inouye (D-HI), Not Voting
McCain (R-AZ), Not Voting
Obama (D-IL), Not Voting

Byrd (D-WV), Nay
Feingold (D-WI), Nay
Sanders (I-VT), Nay

January 7, 2007: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said newly empowered Democrats will not give President Bush a blank check to wage war in Iraq,"
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/01/07/ftn/main2335193.shtml
December 14, 2007: OH WELL!!!

Ralph Curtains

2007-12-10T00:12:43Z

Ralph Curtains, originally uploaded by Paul Germanos.

printfetish.com

Cure? Disease? Solution? Problem?

2007-12-06T04:21:25Z

I hate the internet generally; I hate LiveJournal particularly. And I hate the 1970's too.

Take your polls, quizzes, memes, trivia, and stick them. Bad photography? Animal close-ups? One more image of the Eiffel Tower or Chicago Bean? A picture of your sad face to let me know that you're sad? Stick them all. Embedded YouTube video? Stick it.

It's a bunch of crap, you know it, and you're only doing it because it appears that everyone else is doing it too. Sure, connect with others -- but validate yourself. Are you waiting for approval from someone? Everyone? Stand up. Walk away from the screen. Read a "real" book. Take a trip to a place that no one goes. Go to see a small, bad play performed by really serious young actors. Vote. Grow a flower. Get off your ass and do something. Blah, blah, blah.

But I digress. A post in Flickr. A flashback. 1970's television serials:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheelie_and_the_Chopper_Bunch

image.jpg, originally uploaded by Austie Jonez.

Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch
Look at these freaking episode titles:
Dr. Crankenstein
Camping With a Go Go
Dragula
Friday the Thirteenth
Johnny Crash
Is this a children's program, or a Cramp's album? I watched these. I loved them. I had Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch comics...

H.R. Puff 'N Stuff???
"H.R. Pufnstuf -
Who's your friend
when things get rough?
Can't do a little
cuz you can't get enough!"

God damn you Hippie bastards -- hanging out in the park and giving young people LSD. How was my young mind supposed to process that crap? A witch on a rocket-powered broomstick chasing a boy with a magic flute? No nightmares there...

I think, now, that H.R.'s "rescue racer" might have been the first "Steam Punk" object to have been created. Though I can't write that with certainty. And I'd hate to make any offensive suggestions.

Peace: October 27, 2007

2007-10-30T17:44:19Z

Dearborn Curtilege, originally uploaded by Paul Germanos.

National Mobilization to End the Iraq War: October 27, 2007

2007-10-23T18:38:13Z

http://www.commondreams.org

Toy Art

2007-10-23T17:52:10Z

100_2357, originally uploaded by dodotoyart.

My Portuguese is very weak, so I don't understand the whole of the story. But she, Delfina Reis, sews these "Dodos and Dadas" in Brazil. They are fun and colorful. And she is happy.

dadacopa, originally uploaded by dodotoyart.

Motorcycling

2007-08-17T06:00:59Z

If you've considered becoming involved in motorcycling but haven't known where to start, the following might be of interest.

I've started building a "First Motorcycle" guide on-line. To date, there are six pages [no css, yet] up:

Thanks!

Pyemotes Herfsi: Bitten as "itch mites" invade Chicago.

BlogHer 07: Chicago's Navy Pier; tour w/ Kat & friend.

Magicicada: The 17-year emergence; my third interaction.

Niki de Saint Phalle: An exhibit @ Garfield Park Conservatory.

Happy Birthday!

2007-08-08T05:30:30Z

And thank you for the gift:

creepyheads, originally uploaded by acht.

8 - 8

War with Iran

2007-02-01T03:35:40Z

War with Iran:

Posted January 31, 2007. Updated February 5, 2007:

I think that we are now 3 to 6 months away from war with Iran.

The President's rhetoric is becoming more bellicose; evidence of Iranian involvement in Iraq is being presented to select Congressional committees; stateside, troops and equipment are being mobilized; overseas, carrier groups are moving towards the Gulf.

Or so I have been told. It is possible that a feint is being made for the purpose of deceiving someone - at home or abroad.

But I don't think that I am witnessing a feint. Nothing about the American policy in Iraq makes sense - unless that policy is viewed as a first step in preparation for a larger war with Iran.

It had to be the case that American policymakers understood that the immediate beneficiaries of American military involvement in Iraq would be the Shiite Muslims; and that while the Kurds withdrew to the north, a civil war would erupt between the disenfranchised Sunnis and the newly empowered Shiites. Such is the status quo. If it was not known before, it cannot be denied now.

It is interesting, too, that while (1) the Saudis continue to provide money, arms and soldiery for the purpose of advancing the - enemy - Wahhabi/Sunni positions in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq, and that while (2) the pilots involved in the 9/11 incident were said to be Saudis, and that while (3) the Saudis fund the promulgation of anti-Jewish literature/speech in the United States itself, the Executive continues to characterize Saudi Arabia as a "strong moderate ally." But for the need to prevent a second front from opening while undertaking a campaign against Iran and the Shiites, how would one make sense of such a situation?

Maybe, Osama Bin Laden wasn't a Saudi; maybe, the copies of the Koran that I've read were faked; and maybe everything in the paragraph above is false - including the story about Saudi hijackers involved in the WTC attack. But whether it's deception, or incompetence, or incompetent deception, it isn't right.

There is a question of timing, too: Why has this military intervention dragged on for 4 years? Aside from the billions of dollars spent in a questionable manner, there is the issue of the upcoming election. While Clinton and Obama seem like strong candidates now, wouldn't John McCain be more appealing to the American people - if America was "under attack" again? Strong. Strong on defense. Security. Protecting the Nation.

Aren't they catchy words and phrases? Cynical?

I am cynical...because...too few people are being asked to give too much. While the number "3000" is floated around the media as "the cost," i.e. number of American lives lost, scant attention is paid to the casualties - numbering over 50,000 now. Think: 1/3 of all American troops deployed have received a physical/mental injury severe enough to cause them to be removed from the battlefield.

Think:
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Report:_50,000_American_casualties_in_Iraq

Look:
(The first link contains very difficult imagery of veterans from this war; the second link contains images of their family members.)
(1) Purple Hearts
(2) Final Salute

How long will the war continue? How big will it get? In 1964 something was said to have struck an American vessel. And we went to war in Vietnam. We did not leave until 1973/75.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_of_Tonkin_Resolution

Whether something happens here, in the USA, again (Pearl Harbor or 9/11) or something happens to one of our vessels in the Persian/Arabian waters (Gulf of Tonkin) something will happen.

(Recent) Historical Background:

Updated February 5, 2007; February 14, 2007; February 17, 2007:

1979 [Iranian Revolution] A revolution occurred within Iran: The American-backed Shah and his SAVAK were overthrown by the Iranian people. Resistance to the Shah's rule found had found sanctuary within mosques. In those same mosques, the revolutionaries found an ideology (Islam) around which they could rally their countrymen. Ironically, from the contemporary perspective, one of the revolution's leaders, the Ayatollah Khomeini spent a period of exile in Iraq, prior to the revolution.

It might be possible to trace the roots of the current conflict, and evidence of the long-standing connection between the Shia Muslims of Iran and Iraq, to this event.

1980-1988 [Iran-Iraq War] It appeared to more than one observer that the USA supported Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq War of 1980-1988 chiefly for the purpose of containing the spread of Muslim fundamentalism in the form of Iranian Shia Islam.

Ironically, Saddam Hussein also received substantial support from Arabs of the Gulf States - including Saudi Arabia. And the Saudis promoted (promote) their own form of Muslim fundamentalism in the form of Sunni Wahaabism.

1990-1991 [Gulf War I, George Bush I] The USA rallied the world, in the first Gulf War to defend the monarchy of Kuwait from invasion. Iraq's conventional forces were smashed - while Saddam Hussein and his loyalist Republican Guard were left in place.

It seemed that Saddam was acceptable as a foil to the revolutionary forces in Iran - till he moved towards the wealth of the Gulf. The relationship between Saddam and the Guard was not unlike the relationship between the Shah and SAVAK. So that, we, the USA, made the decision to tolerate the oppression of the many by the few for some 'greater' geopolitical goal.

1992-2000 [Sanctions, air strikes, Bill Clinton]

1993 [Attack on WTC I] First World Trade Center Attack

2001 [Attack on WTC II] Second World Trade Center Attack

2003-2007 [Gulf War II, George Bush II] Democracy is a game of numbers; there are more Shia than Sunni in Iraq; creating a democracy in Iraq, the Shia gained power; the Sunni minority struck back - with Saudi Wahaabi aid; most 'terrorism' in Iraq, now, is said to be caused by the Sunni population - with Saudi support; Iran desires a stable border with its neighbor - and 'wins' if democratic reforms effect a 'peaceful' transition of power to the Shia population of Iraq.

Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United States, refuse to tolerate a 'nuclear Iran.'

The war with Iran has already begun in the form of conflicts between Fatah v. Hamas in the Palestinian Territories, in addition to Hezbollah v. Israel in Lebanon. The USA supports Fatah and Israel; Iran supports Hamas and Hezbollah.

As an American, I find it difficult to reconcile our willingness to support regional monarchies - Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Jordan - with our unwillingness to accept the democratic outcomes of 'people's movements' or even the elections that we worked for in Iraq.

(Recent) Articles Focusing Attention on Iran:

Updated February 14, 2007:

(The new acronym is EFP.)

(1) U.S. Says Arms Link Iranians to Iraqi Shiites
(2) Three Iranian factories 'mass-produce bombs to kill British in Iraq'
(3) The U.S. military finally held its much-anticipated briefing on Iran’s alleged involvement in Iraq’s violence. Just how strong is Washington’s case?

Updated February 26, 2007:

Iran Ignores UN Deadline The nuclear program - unacceptable to the USA, Israel and Saudi Arabia, continues.

British Remove Troops From Southern (Shia) Iraq In preparation for an aerial assault, or to avoid being targeted after said assault?

Updated March 3, 2007:

(1) Seymour Hersh April 8, 2006, The New Yorker.

(2) Seymour Hersh February 25, 2007, The New Yorker issue of March 3, 2007.
Quote:
"The U.S. military also has arrested and interrogated hundreds of Iranians in Iraq. 'The word went out last August for the military to snatch as many Iranians in Iraq as they can,' a former senior intelligence official said. 'They had five hundred locked up at one time. We’re working these guys and getting information from them. The White House goal is to build a case that the Iranians have been fomenting the insurgency and they’ve been doing it all along—that Iran is, in fact, supporting the killing of Americans.' The Pentagon consultant confirmed that hundreds of Iranians have been captured by American forces in recent months. But he told me that that total includes many Iranian humanitarian and aid workers who 'get scooped up and released in a short time,' after they have been interrogated."

Updated March 25, 2007:

(1) 15 British naval personnel captured by Iran.

(2) Iran continues nuclear program; USA seeks additional sanctions at UN.

(3) Saturday March 18, John McLaughlin reports the total number of American casualties in Iraq to be 72,800 - citing a John's Hopkins report.

Updated April 2, 2007:

In the history of this conflict, this is the most difficult image that I have seen: http://dirckhalstead.org/issue0703/a-thousand-words.html . And I am upset.

Questions About the State of Democracy in America:

Updated February 17, 2007:
(1) If the threat to America is so great that it is necessary to engage in the practice of 'extraordinary rendition,' i.e., kidnapping of 'terror' suspects overseas, why has the southern border of the United States been left virtually unguarded? Is it to be believed that tens of thousands of desperate and poor Mexican migrants are able to cross the southern border of the United States undetected - but that such an act is beyond the capabilities of the highly trained agents of the 'rogue' states that sponsor terrorism? Too, what sense does one make of airport security - given the state of the southern border?

(2) That political power should pass back-and-forth between two parties is dangerous enough. But what does one make of the fact that it has begun to pass back-and-forth between two families?

ace_combs @ 2006-12-21T21:03:00

2006-12-22T02:03:56Z

Simon's Blog:
--------------
zines? books? art? food? fashion? thrift? (butts?)
http://www.printfetish.com

Last Minute Shopping:
----------------------
oh, zines, books, art, food, fashion, thrift, etc., are all nice - but you wanted electronic music. and so, you looked here:
http://www.skylaboperations.com/

Pants:
------
Only rarely in my adult life have I owned comfortable pants. Because of my proportions, I do not fit well in mass produced clothing. And I think that shopping sucks, period. Enough said.

I bought a bunch of loose fitting "Columbia" brand cargo pants four years ago, and have since put off any further purchase. But I needed some new denims: size 34/34, Levi's 505 worked the last time I got 'em, oh, 10 years ago. Problem is, 10 year old blue jeans with holes in the knees are unacceptable for construction work, and/or motorcycling. In spite of my best efforts to patch/repair, it was time for the Great Pant Hunt to begin, again.

Once upon a time, they (Levi's) were made in SF, Cali, USA. Then, Mexican labor supplanted American labor. Now, three pairs of Levi's, all 36/32, regular cut:
(1) Columbia, (2) Hong Kong, and (3) Haiti/Dominican Republic.

And so I am an Evil Bastard who supports sweat shops - and the cotton industry. I would believe that my waist has grown 2 inches; but have my legs shrunk 2 inches? Perhaps I have been doing too much heavy lifting. I see a hemp kilt in my future.

(After trying on 20 pairs, I concluded that brand/size/cut/style seemed to matter little: there was a great variation in fit - even in the same product. Oh how I long for the "Old Days" when Levi's were Levi's, chemicals weren't an issue, 527/521/555/etc didn't exist, and nothing was "full-cut" or "relaxed-cut" etc.)

Comparison: One year ago I bought an "ecobag" string bag at the Wheatsville Co-op in Austin, Texas. Said bag bore a tag that contained the following information: SKAL certified organic cotton / Fair Wage / Fair Labor. It was $5 (American) and it has held up through a year of use on/off the motorcycle.
http://www.ecobags.com
http://www.wheatsville.coop

Dreams:
--------
(1) I entered a building that sold soup - and elephant rides. The building's interior was well-crafted from wood, and its ceiling was low. The cumulative effect of the proportions and material was like unto a Nordic sauna. But, the style of the woodwork was Maori, or, possibly, Tibetan. Inside the structure a 50 year old male, very pale, but southern Asian in appearance, walked up to me. He reached forward and, with both hands, pressed upon a particular point on my face. Some illness was cured. When I woke from the dream, I felt relief from a mild cold that I had been fighting.

(2) I was in the kitchen of a home, cooking oatmeal for my mother and lj's rearwindow. A tornado - a la Wizard of Oz - scooped up the house, and spun it around, and around. We landed in an area where road construction was being performed. When I woke from the dream, I found that my mother - who knew that I had been ill - had left a pot of oatmeal for me to eat.

Iraq:
-----
(a) the territory of Iraq is a political fiction composed of disparite elements; it can't be held together without some violent force superior to the warring factions, e.g., Saddam Hussien, or, the U.S. Military. And even if the state (Iraq) is held together, forces external to Iraq will continue to supply arms/advice to those parties for whom they have sympathy; everyone (Russians, Iranians, Saudis, Americans, etc.) engages in said behavior.

(b) the territory of Iraq can't be partitioned because of the objection of the Turks to Kurdish statehood in the north, and the certainty of greater Iranian influence in the south.

(c) what is happening in Iraq, and in Lebanon, bodes ill for other multi-ethnic, and/or multi-religious states, esp. the United States of America. And this is the really serious thing - that no one is mentioning. Post-Yugoslavia, post-Soviet Union, after devolution in the UK, has America got a future? Or, should we expect "sectarian" violence to escalate?

(d) any advice that James Baker had to give he could have given, privately; Baker is a friend of the Bush family. Why was the Iraq Study Group necessary? Was the Iraq Study Group (as the "blue ribbon" 9/11 Commission before it) anything other than a public spectacle? James Baker's private firm has the Saudi Royal Family as a client?

Above: containing some 100+ additional references to the secret plans of the Jews, along with indications of the insults that Jewish people have offered to God and Muhammad; printed in Saudi Arabia; available in the U.S.A. through offices in Ashland, Oregon; given to me by a Muslim attempting to convert me.

Andy Warhol(a):
----------------
I hit the Warhol show at the MCA in Chicago. That was months ago, and it's a good indication of how long I've left the LJ alone. The Warhol show was followed by a multi-part documenatry on PBS; the documentary was preceded by a really catty review in the column of Chicago's leading critic of the visual arts.

Yeah, Andy Warhola: he was the son of Polish/Czech immigrants; he "grew up" in Pittsburg. Warhol's childhood - the place from which he came - was "exposed" by the authors of the video series. And the question was begged, though not asked: To what degree was Warhol an invention? It is easy enough to point at his wig, and consider the issue settled. More fundamentally: Was Warhol in control? Warhol was a Jay Gatz character; Warhol was a Fitzgerald-like author. Character? Author? Victim? Victimizer? The (documentary) treatment of Warhol was complex enough to present the difficult issues generated through the conscious manipulation of media by a desperate man.

And so it was a double entendre to have Jeff Koons provide the voice for Warhol, in the documentary: the guy who was famous for imitating the useless crap that was sold to him - was imitated by the guy who imitated the guy who was famous for imitating the useless crap that was sold to him.

I think that it matters whether Warhol was sincere, or mocking, in his treatment of his icons: Marilyn or soup. It is impossible for me to believe that Warhol did not accord fame - popular consumption - some great value. Well, the attention paid to him is timely, inasmuch as his model has been widely employed by the legions of mimics who are unable to "create" anything new.

Flash-Master J. White
-----------------------
I went to Simon's (Clark & Foster) tavern, and shared a bottle of ale with my old friend J. White. Though James and I were friends in high school (1981-1985) we haven't really seen each other since that time. Then, earlier this year, he found me on-line. We got together. It was good.

(Note Halloween decorations in background; Thor, God of Thunder, at far right.)
http://www.artandstrategy.com

ace_combs @ 2006-09-05T16:07:00

2006-09-05T21:26:36Z

The goldenrod is coming into bloom. And the Queen Anne's lace has cupped. Here, in the prairie, that means Summer's fading. The air is drier, the nights are cooler, and the first wood smoke wafts...

New photo sets on flickr:
-------------------------
Building, slowly, the following:
Chicago,
and,
Chicago Public Sculpture.

Jack Kerouac and the End of America
---------------------------------------
So, yeah, I picked up a collection of his work, and 3 cd's on which he was recorded while reading poetry.* It was the first time that I had heard his voice: East Coast, cadence alternately halting and rolling, obviously connected to the mind that formed the words given to the voice.

I tried to read Kerouac aloud - imitating the man's own speech - when the nephew was in town. "Stop! Stop! It's horrible!" he yelled at me, "I wanted a story, but not that!"

In any case, my real interest in Kerouac stemmed from his role in the development of a consciously "outsider" or "alternative" American movement - post WWI.

Two quotes, (A), (B), from Kerouac's About the Beat Generation, 1957:

(A) "In actuality there was only a handful of real hip swinging cats and what there was vanished mighty swiftly during the Korean War when (and after) a sinsiter new kind of efficiency appeared in America, maybe it was the result of the universalization of Television and nothing else... but the beat characters after 1950 vanished into jails and madhouses, or were shamed into silent conformity,** the generation itself was shortlived and small in number."

(B) "It never meant juvenile delinquents, it meant characters of a special spirituality who didn't gang up but were solitary Bartelbies staring out the dead wall window of our civilization- the subterraneans heroes who'd finally turned from the "freedom" machine of the West..."

In that period between WWI and, say, the mid 80's, we had a series of "counter-cultural" movements that, each in their turn, emphasized the act of breaking from the ongoing processes of integration, homogenization, and, yes, commercialization, that ran parallel our exploding technical capacity to communicate and manufacture.
Ex-Pats/Lost Generation [F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway] to
Beats [Kerouac, Ginsburg] to
Hippies to
Punks (this is a terrible article; wikipedia at its worst...),
and then you lost me...

Post WWI there was a change; I don't think it's an arbitrary date: investigate the rise in American military/industrial power, mechanization of warfare, corollary developments in flight, etc.. If the War ran from 1914-1918, maybe the American century was/is 1914-2014; the midpoint (50 year rise, after which the fall began) would be 1964 - the same year that the Gulf of Tonkin incident was used to commit us to (un)war in Vietnam. 1989 would mark the center of the period of decline; 1989 was Bush Sr's first year in office. It works for me.

Roughly, 1990 to the present day I have watched the "fight" go out of the American people. Materialism seems to have triumphed: the myth of scientific progress is repeated, while the vast majority of life on the planet is extinguished for want of healthy food to eat, clean water to drink, minimal care during pregnancy/birth, and basic sanitation - all of which we have the necessary technology to repair. But, no. Visual art, music, fashion, politics - all recycled: sampling and repeating that which has already been. Reagan [1980-1988] won office with a bold vision: looking backward, back before 1964, back before Vietnam, back to the 'good old days' of the 1950's - when America was rising towards her zenith. Well, it all ended with Kennedy looking up at the moon, didn't it? In 1963 he was assassinated. And now?***

War
----
I am pained, nightly, by the images broadcast on BBC World News. BBC-Tavis Smiley-Charlie Rose: that's been the routine. Images: 70, 80, 90 year old men and women being carried from the rubble that was a home; children's bodies lying still under tarps; the guy from Boston who moved to Israel, his feet still on the pedals of the bicycle he was riding when the rocket landed.

Well, these people are a part my family: Lebanon and Israel. I refuse to discuss the issue in any other terms. The violence is wrong, period. I am completely opposed to all of it.

It's a horror, you know, to cause the innocent to suffer. "Where is the humanity?" a woman cried out, her child beside her.

Muslim, Jew, or Christian, where does the responsibility lie:
(1)the man who gave the order that the bomb should be dropped;
(2)the man who dropped the bomb;
(3)the man who made the bomb that was dropped;
(4)the man who provided the design to the maker of the bomb;
(5)the man who wrote the book that inspired the order to drop the bomb.

The Modern History of the Arab-Israeli Conflict: Five Periods

1914-1918 World War One; T.E. Lawrence, et al, encourage Arab revolt againt the Turks.
1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement
1917 Balfour Declaration

1919-1945 Mandate System establishes European "tutelage" of Mideast
1938-1945 World War Two; The Holocaust
1943 Lebanon (independent) created as French mandate ends, Syrian troops leave
1947 British leave Palestine to U.N.
1948 Israel (re) founded (first P.M. David Ben-Gurion)
1948-1949 First Arab-Israeli War

1952 Gamal Abdel Nasser comes to power in Egypt
1956 Egypt (Soviet Union) nationalzes Suez Canal - attacks Israel (Britain, France)
1956 U.N peacekeeping force separates Egypt/Israel

1973 Egypt, Syria attack Israel
1977 Anwar el-Sadat, President of Egypt, flies to Israel meetin Parliament, P.M. Menachem Begin
1978 Camp David Accords between Sadat/Begin, via Jimmy Carter

1981 Anwar el-Sadat assassinated by a Muslim extremist
1982 Israel invades Lebanon - to strike at P.L.O.
1993 "Oslo Accords" Israeli/P.L.O. mutual recognition, Palestinian self-rule
1995 PM Rabin assassinated by a Jewish extremist

Prior to the First World War, the Ottoman Turks had controlled a portion of southeastern Europe, southwestern Asia, and northeastern Africa for several centuries. After the Ottoman Empire sided with Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire in WWI, agents of the Allied Powers - especially the British - sought to weaken the Turks by provoking their subjects to rebellion. (Striking at your enemy through the use of another people is characteristic of conflict in the region to this day.)

Most probably for the purpose of winning the War, the British promised, essentially, everything to everyone: (1) to the various Arab speaking people of the region: indepedence; (2) to the French: post-war Anglo-Franco control of the entire region; (3) to the Zionist movement: support for a Jewish homeland in the territory called Palestine.

Post WWI, the British and the French did divide the region of the Mideast (all of the Ottoman Empire, but for Turkey proper) between themselves - establishing borders according to their own purposes. While Palestine was governed by the British, the French carved the territory of Lebanon from Syria; both territories (Lebanon and Syria) remained under French rule.

During the 50's, 60's, and 70's, i.e., the Cold War, the greater powers in the world fought each other via surrogates. The Soviet Union supplied arms and advisors to the Arab speaking peoples; the British, French, and later the Americans, supported Israel.

(Post)Modern Art
-------------------
A month ago? Two months ago? I hit to the Museum of Contemporary Art. Patty Chang: sculpture and video installation dealing with the myth of "Shangri La." I walked up to Patty's piece - a huge sort of jagged pyramid, faced with glass - and a female security guard walked up to me. She reached out, extending a pair of white gloves. Along with the gloves came an invitation to "turn" Patty's mirrored pyramid; it was mounted on a pivot of some sort. So, yeah, I put on the gloves, laid hands on the piece, and began to circle Kaaba. With each pace, a crowd grew about me. After one full revolution, I had 50 spectators. Or, Patty had 50, and I had become a part of the artwork. Powerful spotlights mounted overhead shown down on the piece, casting reflections about the room. The effect was not unlike the infamous "disco ball" of the 70's.

Garden
--------
I put together a few recycled 5 gallon buckets at the beginning of the season - using compost that I had made, last year. A Roma tomato plant went in one of the buckets, a Big Boy hybrid in another. The plum has bourne fruit abundantly; the hybrid's limped and withered along.

Though I lost my (20x50) vegetable garden plot when my sister moved to Texas, my wildflower project at the Mom's place has matured; it now hosts a good variety of insects, birds, and small animals.

(More)Art
------------
From the library shelves: Art Today, by Edward-Lucie Smith. Art of the Post-Modern Era, by Irving Sandler.

I'm still not certain that there is any such thing as "Post Modernism." A fair number of people will repeat almost anything, if they believe that they stand to gain (status/wealth/etc) as a result of their repetition. To the degree that university is structured for the purpose of maintaining certain paradigms, such people do well in university.

One reads Derrida, or Foucault, or, for that matter, Nietzsche; the number of overt, and covert, references to Xenophon, Plato, Aristotle, et al, is striking. So that it would seem silly to suggest that one possessed any real understanding of Derrida/Foucault/Nietzsche/et al without having read Xenophon/Plato/Aristotle/et al.

But the situation is even more horrible: "important" professors, authors, and other such people, not only avoid The Classics, but, too, it is not uncommon to find that they've read only summaries of the (postmodern?) authors who comment upon the The Classics. Right? Follow?

[* I ended up returning the materials to the library a few days late...and paying $2 U.S. in fines. Generally speaking, I feel good about giving my money to libraries. The public library is, I think, one the best things that we, as a species, have done.]

[** I think that "...shamed into silent conformity," sounds not unlike the social machinery at work in Alexis de Tocqueville's "Tyranny of the Majority." See Part II, Chapter 7, Democracy in America. ]

[*** RANT: 1980 to the present, a period of 26 years, two families, Bush and Clinton, have been, as President or Vice President, in the White House. "...you're so boring; boring, boring, boring; always tape machine recording; i've heard all this before; i've heard all this before; your emotions make you a monster." Vote for Hillary in the next election? "It's time for a change." My ass.]

Happy August Leo Birthday(s)

2006-08-07T18:52:41Z

ace_combs @ 2006-07-06T21:00:00

2006-07-07T02:00:16Z

Have Tools - Will Travel

So, I took a shower. And when I finished, I found myself standing in water midway between my ankles and my knees. I'm quite certain that with the application of hash marks to my shins I'd be able to tell exactly how long the spigot had been left open. But this is no "Ode to the Graduated Tibia." I digress.

Your place looked a bit like a crack house, sans crack. (No offense, just saying...) I tried to help. I cleaned what I could clean; threw away what I could throw away; repaired what I could repair. The shower/tub fell in the "repair" category.

Having experienced the condition (baptism) firsthand, I fetched my rodder, and then set to work. But it occurred to me that I'd likely get wet and/or dirty in the course of the job. And I had but one change of clothing with me; your stuff was not an option. Therefore it seemed a good idea - at the time - to (1) remove my clothing; (2) work in the nude; (3) shower upon completion of the task. I was standing in a tub. Was I not?

Any fool could see that there was going to be a problem. I kept right on with it - only half-suspecting that I'd receive a great shock, die, and be discovered there, in that state. Headline of local paper:
ELECTRO-MASTURBATOR FOUND DEAD ALONGSIDE BIZARRE INSTRUMENT OF PLEASURE.
(Police officials indicate man's corpse is likely NOT AMERICAN - AND MOST PROBABLY LINKED TO AL-QAEDA OR HOMOSEXUAL UNDERGROUND.)

It didn't happen. In fact, I hit the clog - a massive bunch of hair - quite quickly. The drain worked. All was well. I just couldn't get the rodder back out of the drain. I tugged and tugged. It became evident (even to me) that I'd need to break apart the hair before the rodder would clear the plumbing. Thinking quickly, I left the bathroom in search of an old wire hanger - hoping to use it to loosen the hair that had wound around the rodder.

In paragraph three I claimed that I had removed my clothing, and worked in the nude. In fact, I was not entirly nude. I was wearing your dish washing gloves: elbow length, latex. And that was how he saw me.

Workmen hung on the exterior walls of your building, moving on scaffolding. One those scaffolds was directly outside of your window. And the man on that bit of scaffolding was looking in your window when I went looking for the wire hanger. I suppose he expected to see you: 100 lbs of elfin beauty. Instead, he saw me: 200 lbs, and bearded - nude but for the elbow-length latex gloves.

He did not look away.

Hair Clog Part Deux: The Vacuum - No Suction!

(A) (B)

Shower fixed, and me showered, I strode about the condo, brazenly unshod. Fine - till I looked at the bottoms of my feet. Black I say! Black as coal, they were. Like a wee lad walking back from the Welsh mines, mid-summer. The culprit? your vacuum.

Breaking it down, I removed (A) from a bit of tube near the base. And then (B) broke free. CD = 12cm. Yes, all of that funk packed into a length of hose the size of a bratwurst - or some similar object. Floor cleaned.

Mom

June 24 Mom started to display symptoms. Finally, on the 29th, she agreed to call the doctor. They've got her on some Abbott Labs product called "Omnicef." Today, July 6th, she's still sick. The first week of her illness, I made the trip from the North Side to her place daily - collecting the trash, cooking, doing the dishes, pulling and changing the linen, etc. Right now, there is no one else (family) in Chicago to do this. Caring for two people, two places, a 26 mile trip one way, just saying: I'm feeling it. Surgery/rehab in 2004, again in 2005. And this in 2006.

To date, I've stayed healthy.* She's improving.

*After trimming (shirtless) a juniper at her place, I developed (yesterday) a horrible rash on my stomach: belt to chest. Itching. I really, really need to wear more clothing.

Gothic Love Poetry: Buffy

I am a dead man,
pounding the walls of my tomb.
Buffy.

It's that vampric thing your crossing hurts.
But, not being undead,
I don't suppose you'd understand:
the peculiar nature of my circulatory system, or,
the feeling of confinement...

Darling, down here with the Morlocks,
things don't look so good to me.

"While the Angels, all pallid and wan,
Uprising, unveiling, affirm,
That the play is the tragedy, 'Man,'
And its hero, the Conqueror Worm."
Edgar Allan Poe.

But you knew that.
You're a clever girl.
Still, whom else was I to quote?
Wallace Stevens?
"The death of Satan was a tragedy,"
I guess that would work, or,
Walt Whitman:
"Press close bare-bosomed night--
press close magnetic nourishing night!"
I laugh because,
that always makes me think of pretty boys,
and San Francisco.

Oh the villagers fear me, it's true.
Booo! Wait. That's a ghost.
Vampvampvamp! Or something.
I thought that might make you laugh.
But you fear me too.

Please go.
And kill me.
Let me be, like you found me:
A dead man,
in a tomb...

From Late May - Early June

It was hot. I rode farther than I had intended - just to keep feeling the wind. Though I could not afford to do so, I bought music for myself: Bad Brains, DRI and Fugazi. I bought beer too. And then I sat in my underwear listening to hardcore, drinking. I felt dull and sticky in the thick, humid night. But I was happy...a dull, sticky, underwear wearing, motorcycle riding, hardcore listening and beer drinking happy.

In the month of May temperatures in Chicago ranged from a low of 34 F to a high of 94 F. Even for us, that's a bit of a stretch.

I have observed that one of the surest ways to provoke an animal to attack is to threaten its young; having killed many children in Iraq, there will be no peace.

LJ User Joybon: Machiavelli and Gender

Three quotes from you:
(1)"Through a gendered reading of Machiavelli she argues instead that errors stem from Machiavelli's uncertainty about his masculinity."
(2)"Machiavelli uses the male pronoun throughout his texts. However, the qualities of the prince, while traditionally masculine, do not necessarily exclude female princes."
(3)"Excluding Moses, this is a conventional selection: Theses founded Athens, Cyrus the Persian Empire and Romulus the Roman Empire."

Thoughts from me: Note the choice of the words "virtue" (lit. manly, root "vir" as "virile," i.e. a sexually potent male) and "effiminate." Note the warning (repeated) not to be "effeminate," (lit. "effiminato" in the Italian, i.e., like a woman,) (Prince XIX.) Note that said "advice" remains constant throughout the text: do be manly; do not be womanly; and treat "fortuna" (feminine) in the following manner: "fortune is a woman, and if one wishes to keep her down, it is necessary to beat her and knock her down," (Prince, XXV.)

The traditional date of the founding of the City of Rome is 753 BC; The Republic, 509 BC; Julius' death after attempt to transform dictatorship to emperorship, 44 BC. Point: Romulus is mentioned in conjunction with the founding of the City, not the Empire. See other myths connected with the founding of the City: fratricide (Romulus slays brother Remus,) and rape (the Sabines.) Note Moses mentioned in the same context; see Exodus 32.25-29 as another example of fratricide (foundation of Levitivcal priesthood.)

The choice that I find, here, is between seeing things as they are, and causing other people to see things as you would have them to be - not stopping short of murdering your brother, or raping your sister, should such things prove necessary. That is what Machiavelli is toying with.
http://www.constitution.org/mac/prince00.htm
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/KjvExod.html

LJ User Wonderleafy

A good, thoughtful, piece about travel, and purpose in life, here:
http://wonderleafy.livejournal.com/26459.html

Swinney & Le

Most excellent memorials here:
http://elly.org/this/older/2006/05/esquivel.php
and here:
http://swinney.org/journals/article.phtml?id=3972

Flickr, Vox, and Writing Online: In Response to Oof

1980: A balding man with a moustache knocks on the front door. He's selling something - something, he says, that's going to change the way that we live. My family invites him in, and then gathers 'round the stranger. Through his spiel we're introduced to cable television's promise of quality programming sans commercial interuption.

"Too much money," my fathers concludes. But, my friends get wired. MTV appears; our consumption of music is forever altered. Local access! Anyone can do this. In the glorious New Age of media, we're sure to amplify our voice: the voice of The People. The Revolution is about to begin...

20 years later, it's the same story repeated - substituting "internet" for "cable television." What happened?

+ + +

Why write? Those two short words conceal a host of other questions, unasked, e.g., Why think? Why communicate? Why search for the truth? Writers presuppose that such things - thought, communication, truth - have value. All writing is history. When we write, we put down, one letter at a time, a record of our struggles with each other, and also with and ourselves.

And it follows that as people grow tired of writing, they grow tired of that peculiar type of mental activity that seperates us from the other animals. Along with the details that we no longer wrestle with and record, we lose ourselves. So too, when we stop reading the "others" who write, we lose the varying perspectives - insights - that they offer to us. Like a horse that dons its own blinders, our world-view is narrowed. What do we become? In the Skinner box that is [metaphorically?] our slavish Modern life: push the lever, to get the token, to get the food.

Almost certainly, as the means of delivering content have become "more sophisticated," there has been a corresponding decline in the content delivered. Is the thought that the new modes of storytelling are supposed to compensate for the lack of quality in the stories? In a terrible moment of honesty I share the following: I see precious little evidence of independent thought. Increasingly "active" and "lifelike" content appears to be accepted as a counter for an increasingly "passive" and "lifeless" consumer of that content.

+ + +

It's all imitation. 80's flashback, continued: "I play Pac Man, and I watch T.V., I'm so happy 'cause it pleases me, I couldn't really ask for anything else...Maybe my own chain of Taco bells!" D.R.I.

Lame! Tired! Old! "Hey, Germanos, I've made it to the eighth paragraph and nothing's lit-up, moved or been brightly-colored. What the fuck?" It's true: the observations listed above aren't terribly original. And at this point it's reasonable to wonder if there is anything novel about our present circumstance. I would suggest the following: (1) the speed, ease and accuracy with which one is able to imitate and reproduce that which already exists; and (2) the speed, ease and accuracy with which one is able to collect, store and utilize data defining personal details, habits and preferences.

As the discourse becomes ever more superficial, the surface becomes ever more easy to duplicate. We live with the new technologies as they're used for spam, fraud and instantaneous global propaganda - all fueled by the less-than-conscious efforts to acquire acceptence, and status, that have ever been characteristic of our species.

Now, I'm not really down with the "myspace-ification" of human interaction. And from another, more serious, perspective, I don't want to deal with the soon-to-be problem of cloning; if we accept the premise that art is an imitative process, and that the better the imitation of that which is, the better the art, then genetic manipulation, and cloning specifically, would rightly be regarded as the ultimate art.

+ + +

At first glance, it seems good to move from text to imagery. Digital photography is more "lifelike" than is writing; digital photography is easier to produce, and consume, than is text. But, how long would it [did it] take for digital photography to become redundant...lame...tired...old?

The problem for photography of all sorts is that photography is, essentially, a documentary form of activity. And the subjects documented by photography are globally accepted conventions, e.g., Modernism in architecture, objects mass-produced by multi-national corporations, or, species evolved from a common ancestor, on a common world. Submissions from different places and people are not so different:
"this is what mirrored glass looks like in Berlin..."
"this is what mirrored glass looks like in Chicago..."
"this is what mirrored glass looks like in London..."

Having observed the trend described above, the clever - but not too clever - fellow compensates for the lack of thoughtful content with (1) increasingly active, or lifelike, content, i.e., mpegs; or, (2) increasingly violent and/or sexual content; or, (3) parody of existing text and/or imagery.

What to do? Graffiti has a wiff of violence/crime: it's something done to a building, actually, or in the style of an act, without consent. But it too, in short order, becomes a convention - as a result of promulgation:
"this is what paint on the wall looks like in Berlin..."
"this is what paint on the wall looks like in Chicago..."
"this is what paint on the wall looks like in London..."

I suppose that if your goal is to attract a certain amount visitors to your website, then the cycle described above isn't especially troubling - it's just something that you need to stay on top of. You'll realize that as people become aware of what is considered by their peers to be acceptable, they'll tend to produce more of what their peers consider to be acceptable - further homogenizing content. Yet it's still a net gain to allow others to submit content, becuase in so doing the burden of providing it - content - is lifted from you, the host. (Like Google, you'll make money selling other people's content - and it's all about the $$$ yo???)

But if you care about what's being published...then, with increasing regulation, homogeneity of content, and an emphasis on advertising and audience numbers, congratulations, you've made the internet into cable television...into television...into whatever form of communication we have used. And the mode doesnt matter.

I had thought, at first, that I was going to write about writing. But writing isn't so special? Maybe, writing is just another behavior. As the internet is just another form of communication - no better, or worse, than that which is communicated, so too writing is just another behavior - no better, or worse, than the purpose for which the behavior is performed.

Unfinished.

ace_combs @ 2006-05-11T21:33:00

2006-05-12T02:38:06Z

MOTO
----

May 5, 2006, I turned 10,000 miles on the motorcycle's odometer. I have owned the bike less than 8 months - the "bad" months for riding, in Chicago. I have started to build a KLR650 maintenance page, here: http://germz.org/klr650/maintenance.html

BOOKS
---------

So, today, someone tossed a book at me: "Here," the person said, "You can have this for two weeks. I saw it staring at me, and I thought of you." I looked down: My Love Affair with Modern Art, a memoir by Katharine Kuh, Ed. Avis Berman. (*Recommended.) Kuh was a curator, a gallery owner. She was a Chicagoan, connected to the Art Institute. My Love Affair with Modern Art was/is a collection of vignettes that sketch her relationships with 15, or so, notable figures in the field. I struggled/struggle with how I ought to take the prose: On the one hand, Kuh was (apparently) a wealthy North Shore matron, a woman who had attented private schools (Vassar, University of Chicago: M.A. Art History;) on the other hand, Kuh had struggled with polio. And her "voice" was both feminine and also Jewish. So that Kuh was something of a mixed case: insider, and outsider. With whom did Kuh identify? Did the artists find in her someone whom it was advantageous to flatter? Or, was Kuh genuinely sensitive to "radical" perspectives? I am still fiddling with My Love Affair with Modern Art (multiple readings, implied.) The treatments of Brancusi and Noguchi lept out at me; they were good for me to read, now. I think that I like Katharine - a lot. It is interesting to me that she "controlled" much of the work to which I was exposed - much of the work that reached out to me, and shaped me. Who sets the stage? Who decides how the story is told? She died in 1994.

Every 2-4 weeks I pull a new catch from the Library's shelves; it's how I keep my mind alive. Last month, I read these:
200 Years of American Sculpture
Tom Armstrong, et al, Whitney Museum, pub. 1976
(*Recommended. Best publication of its sort that I have seen, commonly available.)
The Oxford Illustrated History of New Zealand
Ed. Keith Sinclair, 2nd edition
(*Recommended. This was the better of the two histories, I think. I like what comes off the Oxford Press a lot; I also like pictures. I've been searching for images of Maori architecture.)
The History of New Zealand
Tom Brooking
Mencken: The American Iconoclast
Marion Elizabeth Rodgers
(Zzzz.)
This is Our War: A Soldier's Portfolio
Ed. Devon Freedman
(256 photos taken by servicemen/women)
The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare
Ed. Michael Dobson & Stanley Wells
(The stage. Robin Goodfellow.)

ART
-----

We had the 14th Annual Art Chicago Exposition, Hyde Park Art Center Relocation, and Nova Expo on the same weekend. The botched planning/timing/execution was horrible, by all accounts. But, I got out, and hit everything. And I hit the openings on the following Friday. If I saw something that I liked, or someone who carried something that I liked, I made a note:

14th Annual Art Chicago
April 28 - May 1
http://www.artchicago.com

Duru Artspace, Seoul, Korea
Kim Sun Doo: painting
http://www.duruart.com

Carrie Secrist Gallery, Chicago
Carolyn Ottmers: cast aluminum, hanging, flora sculptures
http://www.secristgallery.com

Galerie Bhak, Seoul, Korea
Hee-Ju Chung: painting
http://galeriebhak.com

Julie Baker Fine Art, Nevada City, California
http://www.juliebakerfineart.com

Dolan/Maxwell, Philadelphia
Cheryl Warrick:
http://dolanmaxwell.com

Ashley Gallery, Philadelphia
http://www.ashleygallery.com

Lumas, Germany
http://www.lumas.com

Bell Studio, Inc., Chicago
Vivian van Blerk: color photography
http://www.bellstudio.net

Roy Boyd Gallery, Chicago
Dan Devening: painting
http://www.royboydgallery.com

Tory Folliard Gallery, Milwaukee
Fred Stonehouse: painting
http://www.toryfolliard.com

Paul Thiebaud Gallery, San Francisco
Ed Musante: painting (birds) on cigar boxes

EDITORIAL CHOICES
--------------------------

It is amazing to what degree events are controlled through the portrayal of events. I saw, recently, a documentary of Timothy Treadwell - the "Bear Guy" up in Alaska. The producer/narrator was not shy about inserting commentary on the "true" nature of Nature: in his (the producer/narrator's) opinion it (Nature) was chaotic, and cold. The end result was that Treadwell's death in a bear attack was made to become a metaphor for humankind's relationship with the Universe in toto. But, careful attention to the words of "regular" Alaskans, in the documentary, indicated a high degree of respect for anyone who was able to survive on the Land - on the Land's own terms. How to tell the story?

Not for fear of Daniel Johnston, but for fear of the bias of the producer of the documentary of Daniel Johnston, I have avoided The Devil and Daniel Johnston.

Interesting lives - How to tell the story:

Eva Hesse, sculptor:
1936 - born, hamburg, germany
1939 - family escapes nazi regime, to nyc
* parents divorce; mother committs suicide
1959 - b.f.a. yale
1966 - eva divorces; her father dies
1969 - begins series of surgeries for brain tumor
1970 - dies, aged 34 years

H.C. Westermann, sculptor:
1922 - born, los angeles
* lumberjack pac nw
1942 - enlists in marine corps
* pacific tour, wwii
1947 - enrolls at art institute, chicago
* korean war
1952 - begins career as "professional" artist
* "death ship" series reflects exposure to violence.

* selfish note to self, updated: sculpture dept, saic, basement, gray floor, tunnel to the museum ~bam~ Zanzi called me a Westermann...when I walked the halls, there, I reminded him of Westermann. I had no idea what he was talking about. Today I learned. http://www.mcachicago.org/westermanncurriculum/images/westermannpic_home.jpg

Chicago by Motorcycle

2006-04-23T20:18:35Z

...so, i've attempted to mount a camera on the moto. initial results are mixed. i've used nylon zip-ties on the left mirror, and a tripod hanging off the luggage rack. both positions affect the moto's handling...but the real problem is that the timer is short: i've got to set the exposure-hit the timer-mount the bike-raise the stand-engage the first gear-and merge with traffic before the camera goes off, in order to get a pic while in motion. still, the series below affords a good sort of "feel" for what it is like to move through chicago's downtown, or "loop" area:
view as a slideshow, on flickr

ace_combs @ 2006-04-10T13:50:00

2006-04-10T19:33:39Z

Sunday

24 hours
(hover for text - click img 4 & 9)

The Dreams

For several weeks, my sleep has been troubled. During this period, three personalities have made repeated appearances in my dreams: austin, simon, and le.

two (?) nights ago, austin took down swinney.org, and replaced it with an on-line hardware business. i remember seeing jpegs of tools on the screen, where his site should have been. and, center-screen, was small 8px text that read, "screw you, germanos!"

every time austin visits my sleep he says: "screw you, germanos!" in fact, sometimes he yells it, while riding his motorcycle on one wheel. swinney talks shit - even when you're sleepin'. but i've met him, like him, and know he couldn't get his GS up on one wheel to save his life. so he's easy to sleep-ignore.

simon has appeared, alternately, as my mother, sister, and wife. yes. weird. but, she's always some strong, comforting female presence. and, sometimes, the dreams are pleasantly erotic; they are always brightly colored. i've met, and like, simon. so this, too, is easy to sleep-ignore.

whenever le shows up, i'm being chased. and it's something horrible. the last episode involved giant robots (?) that encouraged people to jump (ok, very weird now) into a grinder. the grinding machine transferred the powers (?) of the humans to the robots. this scene - like many before it - took place in an abandoned industrial park. the climax of every dream in the le series involves breaking free from some sort of building. these dreams are colored a dull grey, and fill me with panic. i have never met le.

ace_combs @ 2006-02-21T15:26:00

2006-02-21T21:28:04Z

i try to make good choices. but it can be a very difficult thing to know what is good. and the repercussions of choices are not always foreseeable.

that said, it seems like a wise thing, given what is unknown, to take as little as possible, conserve as much as possible, and, in the process, cause as little harm as possible.

yet we live in a time, and in a place, where we are rewarded for encouraging the consumption of resources: if you produce, sell or create a demand for goods, you profit - and then mark your status with possessions; if you act to discourage usage, it is difficult to live at all.

choices. people do not like to be told what to do. and, in most cases, people would be right if they were suspect of what was said to be good for them. would that more people were suspect; would that more people struggled with the implications of their actions. in the 19th century, both marx and also nietzsche suggested that it was through the satisfaction of "low" desires that what was local would die - while giving rise to a global tyranny. so that what was called freedom was the means through which men were to be enslaved. if i learned one thing while reading plato and xenophon it was that men have been ruled with stories, and appearances.

for my own part, i've continued to ride the motorbike. and i've been good about exercising, indoors. work on the sculpture continues, as possible. but the temperature in chicago has fallen below zero (F), again. summer's markets are only a fading memory. so when i want fresh greens, the asian grocery is my best bet:

Cantonese "Braised" Noodles:

gai lan, or bok choy
cantonese, or vietnamese noodles
soy sauce
sesame oil
sea salt
white pepper
peanut oil

(1) in a medium pot, bring the smallest useful quantity of water to a rapid boil;
(2) add salt/oil to taste;
(3) add noodles; cook per package instructions [avg: 2 mins cooking time, 2-4 "nests" of noodles per person];
(4) drain, and keep noodles in strainer/collander;
(5) in the same medium pot just emptied, bring the smallest useful quantity of water to a rapid boil, again;
(6) add salt/oil to taste;
(7) add rinsed, coarsely chopped gai lan or bok choy;
(8) steam - only until vegetable's color brightens;
(9) drain; keep vegetables in pot;
(10) add noodles from strainer;
(11) add soy sauce, sesame oil, white pepper and salt, to taste;
(12) mix/shake;
(13) serve.

* i like gai lan more than bok choy.
** missing from the recipe, above, is oyster sauce.

food and the aggregate effect of our individual choices about what to consume: my youngest sister bought me a mother jones magazine subscription, for a year. the march-april issue just arrived. it contained upsetting information about the relationship between the commercial fishing industry and the health of the world's oceans.
http://www.seafoodwatch.org
http://www.oceansalive.org/eat.cfm
http://www.msc.org

last christmas, '04, and this christmas just past, '05, my youngest sister purchased gifts from vietnam, for me.

in '04 i was given a blue/white ceramic vessel, for tea. in '05 i received an incense holder, shaped like a lotus blossom. both of the gifts were purchased at TEN THOUSAND VILLAGES, a mennonite project for the preservation of traditional craft that helps artisans to live.

if the war in vietnam ended with the fall of saigon in 1975, and the united states was involved since WWII, then a period of at least 30 years elapsed between the beginning and the end of it all. it's worth remembering what we didn't understand about someone's religion, nationalism and history.

in 1975, when saigon fell, i was 8 years old. my nephew is 8, now. i saw him in texas, in october and december of '05. we worked on my motorbike; it was assembled in thailand.

the current war is, in many ways, distant from my nephew. he told me, a year or two ago, that the arabs are the bad people. when i told him that i was arab, he told me not to say that.

my nephew hears stories, and he repeats them.

i still wrestle with the fact that i chose to purchase the motorbike. it was, and still is, the most practical choice that i could have made: durable, reliable, fuel-efficient, and easy to maintain. but, like all modern systems it has a way of parting its owner from its owner's money.

how poor am i? will anyone buy my artwork...

the only way to rationalize ownership of the bike is to keep riding - and to keep seeing america. then, when it is sold, it will have served its purpose. the memories of what i have experienced, and the skills that i have polished, will remain with me.

not least important, the only happiness that i have known in the past year has been on the motorcycle. it is easy, now, having had the experience of the long ride, to forget where i was before riding away...

it's ironic, now, to see the pictures of my nephew from the christmas of '04: holding a crusader's shield, with the wooden sword that i made for him.

he moved so quickly from bob the builder, to harry potter, to the lord of the rings.

now he plays dark age of camelot, on-line. and another of his uncles has given him a real sword of steel.

people don't like to be told what to eat. people don't like to be told how to raise their children.

when my nephew was younger, we spent time working outside, together. we planted vegetables in a garden. and we talked about the different trees that were native to our home; we learned the calls of the birds that lived in those trees. it was my hope that he would develop a relationship with these things: to learn how they fit together, and how we should interact with them.

i think, at 38, that this is who i am. it's not the interest in healthy cooking or sustainable art, practical motorcycling or political philosophy, family or poetry, but wondering how to fit it all together, in a society that doesn't have much use for any of it, that defines me. i've chosen, as i have been able, in an imperfect world, to do what seemed right. and, when this ends, i am going to be comfortable with that.

working quietly

2006-02-03T02:25:35Z

40 F. Waiting for 50 F before playing with paint...